# An Unusual Pregnancy

Author: WritersCrossing
Tags: Creative Writing, Male, Poem, Short Story, WritersCrossing, Writing prompt, greek, muse, short stories

Writers Crossing writing prompt submission for the week starting 8/15/19 and ending 8/22/19 by  ChaonWriting prompt this week: You have been informed that you are pregnant

Go fave the origional authors work at the link below if you enjoy! They deserve the credit for the work, so let them know!https://inkbunny.net/s/1952703

Posted using PostyBirb

Agreements are made when moneys are paid  
  
in exchange for the work of my pen.  
  
Commissions l gained, grotesque and mundane  
  
portraying the longings of Men.  
  
Although l have had affairs good and bad,  
  
yet the strangest accruing to me  
  
was Renee de la Frere, for whom l would bear  
  
my terrible dark pregnancy.  
  
  
  
Of Dame de la Frere; there's little to share,  
  
As any commissioner knows -  
  
Our clients assume a fake nom de plume,  
  
Renee was the one that she chose.  
  
She showed not her face, but fain would amaze  
  
my muse through command of her quill,  
  
inspiring wit; to fave and critique...  
  
A fellow colleague in the field  
  
  
  
To whom l would tell anxieties fel;  
  
Enough to confound or enrage  
  
Creators as we: the bleak scrutiny  
  
attained when l crumple a page  
  
unaltered and white, revealing my plight--  
  
O how she would giggle to see  
  
the curses I'd say to hasten away  
  
this drought which alighted on me.  
  
  
  
On one such a day I courted Renee,  
  
made reckless by clients and need  
  
``Ideas will not run, till writer-block's done,''  
  
Quoth I, ``What l would to be rid  
  

  of villain accursed; this block is the worst - ''  
  
La Frere then replied thus to me  
  
``Should writer's block leave, what then wilt thou give?''  
  
``The firstborn related to thee?''  
  
  
  
Now let it be said that l was no maid,  
  
no maiden or lass or betrothed -  
  
A bachelor then; and clearly a man,  
  
such was the response that l wove:  
  
One safe enough then; for l did not plan  
  
to wed or be burdened with child  
  
or infant or sprat - ``what say you to that?''  
  
Thus would our troubles beguile.  
  
  
  
``The bargain is struck. Mortal Man, you're in luck -  
  
Such favour would l show to thee  
  
as one who should dare; their suit thus to bear  
  
before my relations and me.  
  
Although it's an age, since men would engage  
  
our audience on Mount Helicon  
  
where Hesiod once did. As then our seed  
  
shall root and be pregnant hereon.''  
  
  
  
She seemed so sincere, I couldn't say, ``Here,  
  
you sure you're not pulling my leg?''  
  
Naught else would she say in Discord that day,  
  
save `now our bargain is made'.  
  
Those words which l read conspired and bred  
  
disquiet in one such as me  
  

  that night on the LAN, where I conceived then  
  
Calliope's dark progeny.  
  
  
  
Pregnancy fair, (as I'm sure you're aware,)  
  
is perceived as a boon and a curse.  
  
Those fortnights which passed in fever aghast  
  
ranked surely alongside the worst.  
  
I battled the chills, the cramps and the spills,  
  
infused in creativity  
  
as line after line exited a mind  
  
in such undeterred urgency  
  
  
  
I labored and strove, delivered and drove  
  
nine months, with a week give or take,  
  
encountering squirts, occasional spurts  
  
of one I endeavored to slake.  
  
A bargain was made, a debt to be paid  
  
which hung like a burden on me  
  
O how l would nurse those letters accursed,  
  
their yet unresolved legacy  
  
  
  
The letters piled high, the weeds to the sky,  
  
well-wishers I sent far away.  
  
Entreated to fare to hence god-knows-where,  
  
repeated, ``Not now, not today,''  
  
For fires burn hot, and muse must be caught  
  
afore She supposes to go...  
  
Those nine months of hell I loved; loathed as well,  
  
as mothers perchance yet may know  
  
  
  
Thus came to The-End, and stoppered my pen  
  
with rather a sigh of relief:  
  

  The manuscript done, the madness has run  
  
its course was the thought l conceived.  
  
No more need l slave for tribute I crave,  
  
saw I that the story was Good  
  
Alas when l found, disinterest around  
  
when audience scarce understood  
  
  
  
As you would expect, I then recollect  
  
the bargain l now call accursed:  
  
To sacrifice there my child to La Frere,  
  
not reading the smaller print first.  
  
That work which I made, was not of my stead,  
  
commissioned by callous Renee  
  
who's empowered to act, and rightly collect  
  
rewards once allotted to me  
  
  
  
So writers beware, and artists have care  
  
lest careless transactions are made  
  
I curse yet the day, I first met Renee  
  
surrendering thus to her stead.  
  
Where words are my trade, commissions my bed,  
  
the strangest I ever did see  
  
was that I would bear to Ms De la Frere:  
  
That firstborn she swindled from me

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/ynZgJDb1